Imposing curfew would be an act of leadership (editorial)

AS SOON as Tuesday, the Mobile City Council could approve a juvenile curfew, which has been proposed to fight crime and improve the character of the city.

Council members should do so without hesitation.

Mayor Sam Jones and the Mobile Police Department brass demonstrated bold leadership when they laid out a controversial plan to limit teen activity in the city after hours. This take-charge approach to solving crime is welcome — and it just might work.

Police say they’ve seen a surge in juvenile crime across the metro area, and they’ve received reports from residents and business owners complaining that youths who should be at home or school are roaming the streets, harassing neighbors and shoplifting.

A curfew would give police a reason to approach youngsters who are out during school hours, after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday. It would be up to the officer whether to transport the teen to a curfew center, release him to a parent or let him go.

Not surprisingly, Mobile County school board members and school officials support the curfew. They’d like to see more teens in class and fewer of them strolling through nearby neighborhoods. Moreover, the county’s two overwhelmed truancy officers would finally have help keeping the kids where they belong.

Understandably, there have been questions about the plan. City Council President Reggie Copeland worries whether a daytime curfew would be constitutionally sound and also whether home-schooled students would be singled out.

For one thing, a curfew that follows the examples set by other cities — Chicago or Dallas, for instance — probably wouldn’t be struck down in court. And the way Mobile’s proposal reads, it isn’t likely to hinder home-schoolers. The curfew specifically excludes youngsters who are with their parents or who are traveling to and from work.

School board member Levon Manzie said he’s pleased that the mayor doesn’t consider the juvenile crime problem "too big" to solve.

So are we.

Most of us can agree that the people of Mobile deserve safe streets, schools, malls and neighborhoods. But it takes leadership to set the high standards needed to make these concepts a reality.

This is the kind of leadership we now need to see from the City Council.